The Electric Guitar

Guitar Head-stock
Mostly referred to simply as the Head of the guitar

The Fretboard
This is the flat or slightly curved piece of wood on the top part of the guitar neck, that the frets are embedded in.
This is usually 5.5 to 6 mm thick

The Guitar Neck
Usually made out of maple or mahogany, The guitar neck includes the fretboard and headstock as part of the descriptionElectric Guitar Pickups
These are magnetic devices, made up of a magnet, around which a copper wire coil is wound.
The vibration of the metal string disturbs the magnetic field, which causes a corresponding electrical signal to be induced in the coil.
This signal is then sent out to an amplifier.The Bridge
The guitar bridge has 6 saddles, one for each string. These can be adjusted backwards and forwards, and in some cases up and down as well. This is where the guitars intonation and string height is set.

The Stopbar, or Tailpiece
This is a Gibson design. On a lot of electric guitars the bridge and tailpiece are combined

The Output Jack
Here’s where you plug the cable in to connect out to a guitar amplifier

Machine Heads
These are what you turn in order to tune the guitar.
Sometimes referred to as tuners

The Nut
This holds the strings in place as they go over the fretboard between the Machine Heads and the bridge

The Frets
These are metal bars that run across the fretboard.
Placing your finger behind them and pressing down on the fretboard causes the guitar string to play at a different pitch.
Frets are numbered from the Nut onwards, so this fret would be fret number three

The Electric Guitar Body
The body of the guitar is made out of wood, and the type of wood used and the quality of the wood has a definite effect on the sound of the guitar

The Neck Pickup
This pickup position causes a bassier sound

The Middle Pickup
This pickup position sounds a bit more midrange

The Pickup Selector Switch
These can be simple either – or type switches, or more advanced with the ability to choose different pickup combinations.

Volume and tone controls
These are passive controls on most electric guitars, so the volume control will make your guitar softer, not louder, and the tone control will make your guitar bassier by cutting out the treble as you turn it.